In our original plan we turned out to have forgotten an important aspect of
traveling in the Río San Juan area: the boat schedules. We simply thought
that there would be daily connections with the different destinations, but
this was not the case. Boats to the Solentiname Archipelago and to San Juan
del Norte only run twice a week, and we were consequently forced to adjust
our schedule. We had one more day before the boat to Solentiname would leave,
and we decided to visit one of the most historical sites in the area: the El
Castillo fortress.

From a practical point of view this was not the best choice, because Solentiname
is located in the exact opposite direction of El Castillo. However, the limited
boat schedule forced us to wait one day and having seen most of San Carlos
we felt it was better not to lose our time and travel down the river to El
Castillo.

We bought tickets for the 8 AM boat, and at exactly 8.01 AM we left San Carlos,
which is a remarkable promptness in this region of the world. The journey between
San Carlos and El Castillo is one of the most spectacular boat rides in Nicaragua.
Not only is the San Juan River stunning by itself, but the birds that can be
seen along the way are also impressive. Hundreds and hundreds – if not
thousands – of birds can be seen along the green shores of the river.
Beautiful egrets and slender cormorants are among the most abundant birds,
but there are also many other species that include king fishers, falcon-like
birds (I am not a biologist, so this is as exact as I can get), stilts, jacanas,
as well as many others that I am not even going to try to identify.

During the three-hour boat ride we stopped several times to pick up people
from small settlements that often have no other access than by boat. After
about an hour a small boat came towards ours and we slowed down to cruise alongside
this other boat. There were only two people in the other boat: one man who
was navigating it and a lady who was the river-version of the ladies that enter
buses to sell candies and drinks. She had a cooler with sodas and a box with
food, and within five minutes she quickly sold her products to the hungry and
thirsty people in our boat, and after this drive-by sale the two boats parted
their paths and we continued our journey.

We planned to stay at a hotel called El
Richardson, and we saw signs right
at the port so locating the hotel was no problem. It took no long to find out
that El Castillo has much more to offer than can be done in one day. In addition
to visiting the famous fortress, other activities like horseback riding, jungle
boat trips and sport fishing tours can all be undertaken from El Castillo.

Because of our tight schedule we decided to stay in the town of El Castillo
itself and visit first of all its main attraction: the fortress. The El Castillo
fortress was built in 1675 and it was one of the most important defense posts
of the Spaniards. The San Juan River gave access to Lake Nicaragua, and therefore
to the treasures of Granada and León, and it was of utmost importance
for the Spaniards that as few people as possible would sail up this river.
Several famous battles have taken place at El Castillo, and it is one of Nicaragua’s
most important historical sites.

We highly enjoyed the visit to the fortress. It was built on a hilltop right
next to one of the strongest rapids of the San Juan River, overlooking the
meandering river and the surrounding area. The view has not changed – except
for the vegetation perhaps – and it is not hard to imagine how the Spaniards
fired their cannons at the pirates in the river down below. Inside the fortress
there is a small museum where we learned more about the history of El Castillo.
We were furthermore surprised to find something else inside the fortress: one
of Nicaragua’s finest libraries. A small room in the top of the building
houses an impressive collection of mostly Spanish but also some English literature.
The library is open to the public and it has been set up with the goal to support
students in the area who would otherwise have no access to these types of books.
A large part of the collection consists of scientific books that were donated
by different institutions, concerning nature, history, and geography. Foreigners
can also visit this library for free. We have been reading some of the books
with great interest, and we can definitely recommend looking around in this
impressive library when visiting the fortress.

In addition to the fortress, the river itself is also a great attraction.
Although we had no time to explore much of it, we were able to perfectly enjoy
the stunning view from the second floor of Restaurant
Daryzu. It was Róger
who first observed something that he could not identify in the river. It seemed
to be an animal that briefly surfaced and then disappeared into the water.
We stared to the river for a while and after seeing several of them in the
corner of our eyes, we saw one of them spectacularly surface right in front
of us. It was a huge, silvery fish swimming upstream against the strong current.
The owner of the restaurant told us this is tarpon, or sábalo in Spanish,
and it is a very common fish in the region of El Castillo. An area south of
the town is even called after this protected species.

We also visited the butterfly garden in El Castillo. Although the butterflies
are not abundant during the dry season, we did see some nice ones in the enclosed
area. An explanation is also given about the different life stages of the butterflies
and about the different butterflies living in this area. In addition, butterfly-related
souvenirs can be bought here.